Decision to grant US citizenship to Dr Afridi not finalised: State Department

Victoria Nuland says the bill to grant Dr Shakil Afridi citizenship is moving through the Congress.

WASHINGTON: The decision to grant US citizenship to Dr Shakil Afridi, the man who allegedly helped the US in tracking down Osama bin Laden, has not been finalised, said US State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland on Monday.

A US Congressman had tabled a bill on Sunday to the House of Representatives asking that Dr Afridi be ranted citizenship, calling for the doctor to be deemed “a naturalised citizen of the United States.”

Afridi is under arrest in Pakistan and had allegedly organised a polio vaccination campaign in Abbottabad for the Central Intelligence Agency, in order to collect DNA sample to prove that the al Qaeda leader was present in the Abbottabad compound.

Nuland, in the daily press briefing, said: “Congress resolution which is moving through the Congress now, it is not finalised yet. But generally, these kinds of moves on behalf of individuals… don’t have force of law. It’s a recommendation.”

When asked about a ‘Pakistani lobbyist’ in the US who allegedly wrote a letter to the US officials to apologise on behalf of Pakistan on the November 26 Nato attack, Nuland clarified that there were no lobbyists being used for communication between the two states.

“We do our business with Pakistan through our representatives in Islamabad and throughout the country as well as through the Pakistani Embassy here,” she said.